Posts Tagged ‘rustic’

Burlap Wreath, Take Two

Way, way back Grace showed you how she made her easy Burlap Bubble Wreath. I too have made a burlap wreath, but mine is quite different than hers. I wanted it to look something like this wreath here, but I must have been a bad student and not followed the directions quite right. That’s okay though, because I actually like how mine turned out!         

What you need:

Burlap—mine was from burlapfabric.com

Wreath- I found that the one with compressed hay worked best—leave the plastic wrapping on!

Ruler

Scissor

Pins- at least 100

 

Step 1:

Cut your burlap. I cut my burlap into 3” x 3” squares. Be ready for a whole lot of burlap shedding—I found it easiest to cut my burlap over a large sheet of old wrapping paper. This way I could just crumple it up and toss it (and all burlap hairs) out. You need tons of squares, so make sure you have something entertaining to watch/listen to!

 

Step 2:

With wreath, pins, and burlap in hand, you’re ready to start assembling the wreath. You will fold each burlap square into a triangle:

square to triangle

From there, you fold it again into a loosely-shaped triangle:

loosely shaped triangle

 

Step 3:

Begin pinning your triangles into the wreath. I found it easiest to start on the inside of the wreath and work my way to the outside part. The last pin for the outer area is on the bottom edge of the actual wreath, so it’s nicely tucked away.

Overlap your triangles so no wreath shows through and rotate the wreath as you go. You can see that my triangles are very tightly packed.

pinning wreath

 

Step 4:

Continue to pin all the way around the wreath. It took me about 150 pins, 1 per burlap square. If you make your squares bigger to start with and want a looser look, then you will use way less.

 

Step 5:

Grab some ribbon and hang up the wreath.

 finished wreath

I like this wreath because it has a very simple look to it. I’ve hung it up as is, but have also stuck a small grouping similar to these wooden flowers in there as well during the very early fall:

image taken from angelaromatics.com

image taken from angelaromatics.com

 

Another victory for our old friend burlap.

 

 

 

Burlap Webbing American Flag

When I first saw the red ticked burlap webbing that we received from burlapfabric.com, I immediately thought of two things: Christmas and American Flag. Since it’s a bit early for Christmas crafts, I’m going to share the Burlap Webbing American Flag that I envisioned and was (happily) able to create.

I knew the webbing would be a great fit for a rustic style American Flag—perfect for our home décor.

 Burlap Webbing American Flag

What you need:

Canvas (I suppose you could use wood too)

Red Ticked Burlap Webbing

Blue Burlap Garland (found in floral section of craft store) – or any leftover blue fabric you may have

Hot Glue Gun

Scissors

Optional- something for stars

Burlap Webbing American Flag

Step 1:

Cut your strips down to size so they fit your canvas. I chose to wrap my strips around the sides of my canvas so the white edges weren’t exposed. I did not wrap the bottom, as it will be leaning on a table or shelf, but I did choose to wrap the top. In total I needed 5 strips.

I also cut out a rectangle from my blue burlap garland to serve as the blue part of my flag.

Step 2:

Layout your strips next to your canvas. As you can see, the strips are quite a bit taller than the canvas, so you have to decide how you want to layer them in order for everything to fit on the canvas.

I wasn’t crazy about the uneven spacing between the red lines and burlap color, so I decided to layer my strips to hide the top red line on each piece of webbing. This would give me nice even red/burlap spaces.

Burlap Webbing American Flag

Step 3:

Fire up that glue gun and get to work. With each strip, I glued the left side of the canvas and simply worked my way to the right, again adhering it to the side of the canvas.

You can see how I cover the top red line on each piece of webbing in the photos below.

Burlap Webbing American Flag

Step 4:

Grab your blue burlap rectangle and glue it to your flag. Since the blue burlap had bigger spaces/was more see through, I was worried that gluing the entire rectangle down would show through to the surface. Therefore, I chose to glue down just the edges of the blue fabric—it stays on there just fine.

Burlap Webbing American Flag

Step 5:

Decision making time- stars or no stars? At the moment I have no stars on my flag and I think I will keep it that way. Reason 1: I like the simplicity of the flag without the stars

Reason 2: I made several attempts to cut small stars out of good old burlap, but each ‘edge’ of the star unraveled, leaving me with a 3 or 4 pronged/misshapen star. Perhaps if I see some pre-cut burlap stars that fit the bill at a craft store I will buy them and see if I like how they look on the flag.

Burlap Webbing American Flag

I just love how this craft came out! Currently it’s on the foyer table instead of its intended shelf destination—we’ll see if it stays put.

 

Happy 4th of July!!

 

Grow Baby Grow-DIY burlap growth chart

Growing up, my parents had a makeshift growth chart on the inside door frame of our kitchen pantry. Nothing fancy, just pencil marks and dates. Naturally I want to do this for L. Since we have yet to find our forever home, I wanted to make something portable. Plus we don’t even have a pantry in our current house. I thought something like this would be perfect for L’s room since she has a few burlap/grass cloth accents in there already. Also the miles of webbing from the fabulous BurlapFabric.com were itching for a project.

Materials:

DIY growth chart 1

  • 2.5 yards of webbing or burlap ribbon  (I’m using webbing with purple stripe from burlapfabric.com)
  • Measuring tape
  • Sharpies (fine and regular tip)
  • 2″ number stencil
  • 12″ Jute or ribbon
  • Safety pins

Step 1:

Line up the webbing with the measuring tape. Be sure to trim the edge so it’s straight. You can also use some painter’s tape to hold the burlap in place.

burlap growth chart 2

Step 2:

Draw a hash mark at every inch with a Sharpie. I made the dashes longer at every ½ foot and longest at every foot mark.

burlap growth chart 3

*I messed up the hash marks the first time. I made every 5 inches longer instead of 6 (notice in the above right picture). Womp! Luckily, the webbing was two sided. I flipped it over and restarted. Don’t make the same mistake I did!

Step 3:

Stencil on the numbers. I used a fine tip Sharpie to outline the stencil first then filled in with a regular Sharpie.

burlap growth chart 4

Step 4:

Fold the excess webbing to the back. Trim it if you have more than 3-4 inches hanging. Use safety pins or stitch the folded over material in place, creating a loop.

Step 5:

Thread a piece of jute or ribbon through the loop.

Some the burlap growth charts on Etsy come with small gift tags or key tags to record height. I found these small wooden scrapbook sticker flags at Joann’s. I think they go nicely with the burlap and jute.

burlap growth chart 5

I love how it turned out. Now if only L would stand still long enough for me to measure her. My only complaint is that it did make her room smell like burlap after it was hung. But if you happen to LOVE the smell of burlap (ahem Grace) you may not even noticed it.

burlap growth chart 6

Stay tuned for many more burlap projects. In the meantime, share with us what gorgeous/clever burlap creations you have pinned lately.